Drinking

Shauna Durrant, senior at USC, condones excessive/binge drinking (Voices, Dec. 12). The worse she has seen is some “guys . . . fighting.” Also, it’s OK to drink (excessively) one or two nights a week so long as you can function well the rest of the week.

Well, Ms. Durrant, learn a little more, preferably fast.

People are raped, stabbed, shot and injured in many other ways when there is excessive drinking. Destructive fires are started. More than 20,000 per year are killed and hundreds of thousands injured in the United States alone due to drivers who are under the influence of alcohol.

People who are killed, and their spouses, children and parents, “don’t function well for the rest of the week”--any week.

CHARLES ARONBERG MD

Beverly Hills